


Like Fire

by LostInThought96



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Angst and Fluff and Smut, Depressed Draco Malfoy, Depression, Eventual Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy, Eventual Smut, Ex-Death Eater Draco Malfoy, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Gryffindor/Slytherin Inter-House Relationships, Head Boy Draco Malfoy, Head Girl Hermione Granger, Mental Health Issues, Redeemed Draco Malfoy, Slow Burn, Slytherins Being Slytherins, mention of suicide
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:53:09
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28212717
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LostInThought96/pseuds/LostInThought96
Summary: “What mental health needs is more sunlight, more candor, and more unashamed conversation.” – Glenn Close.Alpha and Beta credits to@BecksLovesBlue&@megamegaturtleENJOY!
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy
Comments: 4
Kudos: 17





	Like Fire

**Author's Note:**

> “What mental health needs is more sunlight, more candor, and more unashamed conversation.” – Glenn Close.
> 
> Alpha and Beta credits to 
> 
> @BecksLovesBlue  
>  &  
>  @megamegaturtle
> 
> ENJOY!

Burning. 

Seared flesh perfumed the room. It wasn’t an unfamiliar smell to her, but this time there was no war going on. There were no bodies sizzling in the middle of the floor. 

No, this smell was fresh. This smell was pungent and hard to handle. 

Hermione wrinkled her nose and began breathing out of her mouth as she ventured further into the room. She could taste the, clearly, charred flesh on her tongue. When she had come to the Room of Requirement, she was not expecting anyone else to be here. It surprised her when she entered and the room resembled a potions lab. 

“ _FUCK!”_

Her eyes widened as she took in the sight. 

Draco Malfoy, hunched over a tall, concrete potions table. He slowly poured a medium-sized vial of what looked like some variation of _Carnem Manducans_ , but the viscosity was not thick enough. Malfoy only poured useless purple liquid on his forearm.

Malfoy poured it directly on his Dark Mark. 

It burned his flesh and muscle down to the bone.

Useless _and_ dangerous.

Hermione found her legs racing towards him before she could process what she was doing. She ripped the vial out of his hand, careful to not spill anymore of it. She tried not to look shocked as she stared at his forearm; or what was left of it. 

There was a large hole where the Dark Mark should have been. She saw his bone poking through what flesh and muscle remained. Blood dripped from his arm, seeping onto the concrete table. There was so much blood under his arm that it was difficult to focus. Images from the war filled her mind. 

Fred lying on a cot in the Great Hall, his eyes open but the sparkle gone. Lavender sprawled in a heap where Greyback had left her at the castle’s entrance. Hagrid carrying Harry from the Forbidden Forest. 

She snapped back into reality and jumped into action. 

The putrid smell almost choked her. 

“What the fuck, Granger?” Malfoy attempted to sneer, but it sounded half-hearted and weak.

Hermione braced herself and finally looked at the boy she couldn't help but meddle to save. Grey eyes—cold and stone—pierced through her. Malfoy’s normally platinum blond hair lost all luster as it stuck limply to his forehead. It lacked his usual slicked back finesse, mussed in all directions, as if he also lost his common sense. Deep purple bags hung heavy under his eyes as his face struggled to remain expressionless. It looked like he was fighting himself on showing any type of feeling. 

“How long has it been since he slept?” She wondered out loud. The deadpanned tone in his reply shook her out of her thoughts. His low, unfeeling voice sent shivers down her spine, her instincts screamed danger. 

Draco paused for a second, studying her as he absorbed her question. “My sleeping habits are none of your concern, Granger. Now, unkindly, get the fuck out.” 

Like ice water thrown on her Hermione finally found her voice. “No! What are you doing, Malfoy? You could kill yourself or worse get expelled and have an excuse to wallow in self-pity even longer!” 

He scoffed,rolling his eyes but he looked ready to collapse. “Please spare me the concerned act, Granger. We both know you don’t care.” 

His eyes closed and he grimaced as he attempted to move his left arm. 

Hermione pulled her wand and immobilized him instantly. What was this idiot thinking? He could have died! He could have set the entire room on fire. She needed to do some research on the potion in the vial, but first she needed to save Malfoy’s arm. 

Hermione set to work and conjured all the things she needed to heal his arm. She carefully cleaned it, ignoring his muttering under his breath. She tried not to gag when she saw the full extent of the damage he had inflicted on himself. 

Everything was gone, down to his bone. The sides of his arm were barely holding up and if a muggle doctor had seen it, they would have already started an amputation. 

Sorrow swallowed her as she looked at him. His face resembled their sixth year: haunted and broken. “Malfoy, what were you thinking?” she whispered. 

“I… I wanted it gone, Granger. It was just another reminder that my life is over, that my mother committed suicide and my father got away…” He looked at her and for a split second she could see the true Draco Malfoy that he so desperately tried to hide. 

She saw the broken boy who had lost everything and was only pardoned because he was a minor on the wrong side of the war. He only committed his crimes because he was forced to do so to save his family. Hermione saw the scared child who wanted his mother, but she had left him all alone in his new life. She saw all this, but she also saw what he refused to believe he could be; the man that had overcome it all.

“It was a constant reminder that I have nothing to live for anymore,” he whispered, so low she almost missed it.

Hermione swallowed the lump in her throat and shook her head slightly to clear the burning tears forming in her eyes. “Don’t.” 

“What Granger? Don’t tell the truth? I think I’ve done enough lying for a lifetime..” 

Hermione started packing the gaping hole in his arm with a few large cotton balls she had conjured to stop the bleeding . She then took gauze and an ace bandage and started wrapping his forearm. “You have plenty of reasons to live, Malfoy. You have been given this second chance and I’m not going to allow you to throw it all away.” She vanished all the leftover supplies and the bloodstains that would forever haunt her memories and looked up at him defiantly. “You need to go to Madame Pomfrey and have her finish healing this. We could have found another way, Draco.. You didn’t have to do this.” 

His eyes widened slightly at her use of his given name, but he quickly recovered as he stood and pushed his right hand through his hair. The dizziness hit, almost instantaneously, it made him sit back down hard on the stool he had been on. 

“Damn it.” He muttered and shut his eyes with his head down. 

Hermione went about wrapping a cloth around his neck and shoulder and tying it behind his neck. She lifted his left arm and tucked it into the makeshift sling. 

“Can you stand without falling? You can lean on me for support, but you will have to hold your weight.” 

She moved to his right side and slung his right arm around her shoulders as she helped him stand. He was thin, but lean: a Seekers build from years of playing Quidditch. Her mind briefly wandered to an old memory of watching him play. The muscles of his thighs prominent in his Quidditch Uniform and the way he would hold himself on his broom were sometimes the only way she’d watch the game.

_Not now, Hermione. He’s at risk of infection and your fantasizing about his thighs? Don’t act like a daft bimbo._ She silently chided herself. 

The walk to the Hospital Wing stretched ages. Having the Marauders Map kept them from running into Filch and risking trouble for being out past curfew. It wouldn’t have been hard to tell something was wrong; the way Malfoy draped over her and the blood covered clothes would be a sure giveaway if Malfoy’s expression wouldn’t have been enough. 

Hermione almost sobbed in relief when she saw the Hospital Wing. Malfoy had let his entire weight go. She had almost collapsed twice under him. His breathing had been ragged in her ear the whole way and she was sure he wasn’t fully conscious. She burst through the doors of the infirmary and frantically looked around. 

“Madame Pomfrey!” Hermione cried out. 

The thin, stern looking medi-witch came rushing out of her office and gasped upon seeing the duo. 

“What in the name of Merlin? Miss Granger, Mr Malfoy what happened?” She guided them over to a bed where she helped Hermione transfer Malfoy. 

“I found him pouring this over his arm. I tried to heal it the best that I could, but he needs a blood replenishing potion and maybe even a nerve rejuvenator elixir.” Hermione sat in the chair next to Malfoy’s bed. “The Dark Mark is completely gone, Madame Pomfrey… There’s nothing left.” Her voice sounded far off and a bit dazed. She handed the vial of the leftover flesh eating potion to the medi-witch. “It resembles Carnem Manduncans, but it seems to have jellified somehow. Perhaps brewed incorrectly or maybe left to sit too long.” 

Madame Pomfrey took the vial and looked between the two. Her face was masking her disbelief, but her voice gave it away. “I’ll get it sent to St. Mungos to be tested. Right now, I am going to focus on repairing Mr. Malfoy’s arm.” 

The medi-witch ushered Hermione out of the space and went to sit in a chair beside her office. 

Her mind wandered; she tried to guard herself from the fresh images in her mind of Draco’s arm. How just earlier that day she had seen his arm and thus the Dark Mark in all its full glory. She had seen tattoos before on people, but this was different. 

The snake wrapping around the skull seemed to move, like a picture would, and the skull seemed to shake a bit when around anyone muggleborn. It was strange; she had to admit, her need for knowledge on the mark, but Hermione had never shied away from learning of any kind, even if it was Dark Magic. She made a mental note to talk to Harry about what had been found out about the Marks and the magic used to make them. Very little was known about them other than the obvious Dark Magic that was used to create them. However, she theorized that blood magic was used too, but there had been no evidence so far to support that. 

“Well, my dear, he will live. I will have to report this to the Headmistress and she will most likely want to discuss the events of tonight with you,” Madame Pomfrey said as she walked up, wiping her hands with a cloth. “I’ve sent the potion sample off to St. Mungos. Hopefully, they’ll get back to us soon. 

Hermione nodded. “Can I go sit with him? I don’t think he should be alone right now especially since this will be considered a suicide attempt.” 

Madame Pomfrey agreed and Hermione made her way to Draco Malfoy’s bedside. She sat down in the chair beside his bed and took her journal out of her bag to write.She documented the events that had taken place and by the time she was done, Malfoy was beginning to wake up. 

“Here to gloat, Granger?” His voice hoarse and barely a whisper. He had been stripped of his shirt, the blood all cleaned away and his skin had lost its sickly grey color. He was slightly shaking, most likely from the blood loss, and struggling to pull himself to sitting. “Sorry to disappoint but according to Madame Pomfrey I’ll make a full recovery in a day or so.”

“Malfoy, what in the bloody hell were you thinking?” Hermione sat straighter and ignored his jab. She put her journal back into her bag as she stood and walked closer. “You could have died!” 

Malfoy rolled his eyes and finally sat as far up as he could in the bed. “What would you have cared, Granger?” 

“I wouldn’t have, but you can’t just take the easy way out of situations like this, Malfoy. Madame Pomfrey is reporting this to McGonagall. You’re Head Boy. This behavior isn’t acceptable.” 

Malfoy let out a laugh and then locked eyes with her, his face hardened and his eyes pierced her. “Maybe she will do me a favor and send me back to Azkaban. At least there I wouldn’t be bothered to share a common room with a swotty, know it all witch.” 

Hermione clenched her jaw, standing up in a flash as her hair slung around her shoulders, scraping her chair across the tiled floor. She flung her bag strap over her shoulder in frustration, the books in her bag thudding against her back and right side. “You can’t be a right prick for the rest of your life Malfoy. One day, you will have to grow up and realize other people deal with shite too.” 

Malfoy watched her walk out and laid back down with slight difficulty. “Stupid witch..”

**Author's Note:**

> Hoping to update this twice a week if time allows! Let me know what you think in the comments and thank you for reading!


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